Four ways to reach out to your network for (job) opportunities

I recently contributed to a discussion on Hacker News about the pains of job hunting. In particular, my comment was on the topic of tapping the people you know on the shoulder, without sounding too desperate or forward.

Rather than worrying about how you come off, focus on being intentional instead. You want to know—and articulate—what you’re looking for and, just as important, what you’re not looking for. 

In terms of actually reaching out, here are some things I did when I was job hunting:

1. The classic referral

Find the job post and work backwards from there (e.g., is there somebody I know (1st connection) or somebody who knows somebody I know (2nd connection) on LinkedIn who works at the company?).

If I knew the 1st connection, I’d reach out and ask if they were comfortable referring me to the company.

2. The forwardable email

If it was a 2nd connection, I’d reach out with a forwardable email and ask if they’d be able to forward an email and make an intro if they received a positive response.

3. Job hunting as an occasion

I made time to catch up with good friends. It felt energizing to get the moral support, with the added bonus that sometimes they knew people working at companies looking to hire. For example I would eventually get a job offer from Figma and that was because a good friend’s partner worked there and was glad to refer me. I hadn’t even heard of the opportunity before we talked.

4. The weak ties

I also made time to catch up with people I didn’t know that well. Since I spent most of my career running an independent editorial studio, this mostly consisted of past clients or prospects. There’s a classic piece of research that suggests that people who you don’t know well probably are exposed to a very different network to you, and will come across very different opportunities. The conversation would be an opportunity for us to catch up, and I’d talk about being open to job opportunities. I particularly reached out to people who I’d noticed just started new jobs, since the job hunting process was still fresh on their minds.

You could probably abstract these a level higher and apply the principles towards reaching out to your network for all sorts of opportunities. 

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